"The fact is right now, Jim is our general manager, I support him, I think he does a great job, and after that we'll just take it one day at a time," the chairman said.

The Cubs have the highest payroll in the National League and are nine-and-a-half games back in the Central division. Hendry has received quite a bit of heat from Cubs fans and the critics haven't gotten any quieter as they're on pace for their second consecutive season without a playoff berth. Even though he wouldn't guarantee Hendry's job beyond 2010, Ricketts declined to point the finger at anyone in particular.

"I'm not going to assign blame to anyone or anything," said Ricketts. "The fact is we came into the season, we had what appeared to be a pretty strong lineup. It hasn't worked out for whatever reason and it seems like the guys are putting it together now and let's just keep winning."

It is never anyone’s fault . . . 102 years and counting. Maybe if the team could (a) admit their mistakes and (b) address them, things would change. But until then, why should anyone expect anything different than an underachieving dysfunctional organization.

Again, us fans are not soothsayers, but some of this did predict this. A virtually all right handed lineup and no speed leads to a lot of 1 run losses. You cannot rely on power alone, even in Wrigley Field.

That’s why many of us, including myself, wanted Jim to go after guys like Chone Figgins, Brian Roberts, and others who could have provided us with a bit more balance and speed.

Look at the Phillies. Look at the Yankees. Look at the Rays. They know about balance. The Cubs don’t.

I always think Mets fans have it hard until I think of the Cubs fans. That organization is clueless and yet their fans drink the Kool-Aid every year despite the fact that the White Sox are twice as good.

Yeah, this was a good article until the fukudome part. Anybody that has remotely followed this team knows that ted lilly is our best trade piece along with some middle infielders and dlee (after seeing his second half last year). Ramirez may even turn out to be a big trade piece with the way he’s been turning it on. However, his player option next year may be a turn off. I just KNOW that fukudome is not our best trade piece

Mr. Ricketts will tell the public he has confidence in Hendry for now. Too close to the trade deadline for those kind of changes. The big question is will the Ricketts family keep Hendry around after the season. Hendry has two more years left. The sad part is if Hendry stays or is fired at season’s end, several big contracts he signed are still going to be here for some time.

Ovepaying for Figgins and Roberts would have made us worse in the short and long term. I’m not saying speed isn’t important, but it’s more of an intrinsic value more than anything else. The problem with the team is that Lee and Ramirez have been MIA for much of the season. Ramirez has gotten hot which is a good thing for next year. Getting little production from the corners was holding the team back.

It’s not as if we haven’t had players in the lineup perform. Soto, Byrd, Soriano, Colvin to an extent have performed. Lee and Ramirez sucking is the main reason they are losing and that’s not the fault of the front office. Theriot batting anywhere in the first 8 spots of the lineup doesn’t help either. The pitching staff is there, but the offense has held the team back. Lineup construction might have a lot to do with it.

I’m not saying Hendry is great, but he’s probably in the average area. This team has had success with him so it’s not like he’s Dayton Moore, Ruben Amaro, Omar Minaya bad where you have to force him out. We have a better farm system now then when he was spending money so I think the big deals would be limited to an extent.

As far as the free agent GMs I don’t know if there is anyone out there that you can say for sure is better than Hendry at the moment. Not saying Hendry is the best guy out there, but he’s not the worst. His moves last off-season have worked out okay with the exception of the Grabow deal. With the hire of Ari Kaplan deals like that won’t happen anymore most likely. He’s a better talent evaluator than most people give him credit for as well. He’s not Theo or anyone like that, but I think you can have success with him.

He’s been .500 with far and away the highest payroll in the division. He’s been here since 2002. For all the “Farm System” talk that gets bandied. We still don’t have a certifiable Big Bat in the whole ML system.

Bottom line is that the whole organizational philosophy needs to be overhauled. Absolutely no reason whatsoever that the cubs shouldn’t be competitive every single season.

Brett Jackson isn’t too far away and he should be a good bat. Josh Vitters isn’t doing too bad for his age in double A. Yeah we don’t have Ryan Howard type power bat, but it’s not completely empty either.

They do have some decent pieces in the minors. Just nothing in the way of an impact bat.

That seems to be the problem with Wilkens drafts everywhere he has been. He loves tools and guys who look good in a baseball uni. Middle of the diamond athletes and pitchers with fastballs.

While the theory is that these guys can move to different defensive postions. You aren’t going to have a strong hitting team if you are moving minor league SS’s to corner infield and outfield postions in the majors.

He also tends to disregard strike-zone judgement in prospects. But Hendry usually disregards strike zone judgement as well.

Basically this is an organization that has been stuck in the stone age. Trusting scouts is all well and good. You just need a sabre voice to balance it all out.

If you read some of Dayton Moore’s comments on statistics I think you would disagree. I get that Hendry isn’t the most saber inclined GM out there, but he gets the importance of OBP and that’s something Moore has yet to grasp.

Hendry gets a lot to spend so he does have more room for error than most. He has put good teams on the field, but its the players job to perform and they haven’t done it for the most part. IIRC the Cubs were the favorite to win the division in 2009 so he obviously most have done something right. My gripe is that people put him in the Moore, Sabean, Minaya, Amaro category and I don’t think that’s right or fair.

A big part of Hendry’s downfall is going to be that he defers roster decisions to his managers too much. He doesn’t seem to have the stones to “Be the boss”.

-Dusty Baker always wanted speed, aggressive hitters and proven vets. So we end up with Juan Pierre, Tony Womack twice, Jack Jones, Burnitz and players of that ilk

-Lou has been obsessed with Left-Handedness over actual on field production since he got here. In particular a “Left handed hitting Right Fielder that can bat 5th” as Lou begged for from 2007-Milton Bradley. So we saw a stream of Cliff Floyd, Fukudome, Bradley in successive years.

Lou also hasn’t done Hendry any favors in the way he doghouses guys, seemingly at random.

Lou also rode Michael Barrett and Michael Wuertz out of town. Barrett needed to go. Wuertz was a good pick up for Oakland. Eyre had some success with Philly before he was done. Other than that, the other names on that list have not turned out to be so much. Some of those names rode themselves out of town for reasons.

It took Lou a long time to move Soriano when he got here. Lou sits guys like Colvin because he has to play Fukudome…Mr. Invisible after May. Lee is his favorite, yet stinks it up all year and refuses to move him and Ramierez from the 3 & 4 spots in the order. Lou looks tired and his team is reflecting it, too. Likewise, Lou can only do so much. Players need to play. I’m not saying Lou is all to blame or blameless though.

Michael Wuertz was crap anyway… and Micheal Barrett ran himself out by fighting with Zambrano.. but now Z needs to go more then anything.. they could easily trade all the bad apples and contract and just pay 85% of each contract and just get one or two rookie A players for each

“they could easily trade all the bad apples and contract and just pay 85% of each contract and just get one or two rookie A players for each”

Forget Lilly and Lee’s contracts as they are up this year. If you take Soriano, Zambrano, Ramirez and Fukudome’s contracts after 2010, add it up and eat the 85% as you say, it is still over 145MM. Forget lesser dog contracts like Grabow and don’t even count if they buy out Hendry’s two years. That is not reasonable business to eat that much money. Plus, that is not including next year’s payroll on top of that! Not even the Yankees do it and it only happens in fantasy ball.

“they could easily trade all the bad apples and contract and just pay 85% of each contract and just get one or two rookie A players for each”

Forget Lilly and Lee’s contracts as they are up this year. If you take Soriano, Zambrano, Ramirez and Fukudome’s contracts after 2010, add it up and eat the 85% as you say, it is still over 145MM. Forget lesser dog contracts like Grabow and don’t even count if they buy out Hendry’s two years. That is not reasonable business to eat that much money. Plus, that is not including next year’s payroll on top of that! Not even the Yankees do it and it only happens in fantasy ball.

Well, many are venting and you can’t blame them. I toss in cracks as well. This team the last couple years has under performed and looked so bad many times. Hendry does deserve his share of the blame. Some of those previous big signings were not all Hendry’s fault. Some moves came above him. Other moves you can place right at Hendry’s doorstep. I try to be fair for his good moves and the bad ones.

This team continues to fail and play bad ball. It is because of all but a few players. Also, I’m not just looking at Hendry. Pinella is getting paid big money to get/keep these guys mentally ready. Other than his usual ‘what can we do’ or defeated responses, the team (other than a few players) sleepwalks most of the time. But Hendry is the GM. All fingers point to the GM when things go sour. All we can hope for is a better system wide plan with the new ownership and better moves ahead trying to rebuild from the current situation.

Highest team salary in the NL, and 10+ below .500? Not good…Bad signings, Bad Team Chemistry, Tired Manager waiting to pull the pin. This is NOT the makings for a successful franchise. Time to blow it up.